Robert Frost
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Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) is, in the estimation of many, the greatest American poet of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets writing in English in the 20th century. Frost received four Pulitzer Prizes.
Although associated with New England, Frost was born in San Francisco and lived in California until he was 11. He grew up as a city boy and published his first poem in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He attended Dartmouth College and Harvard University but did not complete the degree. Eventually, after purchasing a farm in Derry, New Hampshire, he became known for his wry voice that was both rural and personal.
In March, 1894, The Independent published Frost's poem "My Butterfly: An Elegy", his first published work which brought him $15. In 1912 he sold his farm and moved to England to become a full-time poet. His first book of poetry, A Boy's Will, was published the next year. In England he made some crucial contacts including T.E. Hulme, Edward Thomas (a Welsh writer whom Frost persuaded to turn from prose to poetry), and Ezra Pound, who was the first American to write a (favourable) review of Frost's work. Frost returned to America in 1915, bought a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire and launched a career of writing, teaching and lecturing. From 1916 to 1938, he was an English professor at Amherst College.
He recited his work, "The Gift Outright", at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and represented the United States on several official missions.
He also became known for poems that include an interplay of voices, such as "Death of the Hired Man". American schoolchildren often memorize his poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". Other highly acclaimed poems include "Mending Wall", "Birches", "After Apple Picking", "The Pasture", "Fire and Ice", "The Road Not Taken", and "Directive".
On his passing on January 29, 1963, Robert Frost was buried in the Old Bennington Cemetery, in Bennington, Vermont. Harvard's 1965 alumni directory indicates his having received an honorary degree. During his later years he spent summers in Ripton, Vermont and participated in the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference at Middlebury College.
During his life, the Robert Frost Middle School in Rockville, Maryland was named after him.
Quotations
- "Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it."
- "Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down." - "Mending Wall"
External links
- Brief biography (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rfrost.htm) at Kirjasto (Pegasos)
- Frost (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/frost.htm) at Modern American Poetry
- Poetry X: Robert Frost (http://poetry.poetryx.com/poets/8/) 131 Poems by Robert Frost
- Brief biography & poems (http://www.ketzle.com/frost/)
- Project Gutenberg e-texts of some of Robert Frost's works (http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/author?name=Frost,%20Robert)
- Several of Frost's early books online (http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/robertfrost/)
- RobertFrost.org (http://www.robertfrost.org/body.html)
- A collection of poetry by Robert Frost (http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Robert_Frost/robert_frost_contents.htm)
- The Road Not Taken (http://agutie.homestead.com/files/roadnot_1.html) (Multi-media presentation)
- Bibliography of Frost's works (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/biblio.htm)de:Robert Frost